Alysa E Doyle — Page 2

PubMed2002

Familial links between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Although family, twin, and adoption studies indicate that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a familial condition with a robust genetic component, molecular genetic studies of candidate genes have produced inconsistent findings. One of the challenges to elucidating the genetic architecture of ADHD is its potential genetic heterogeneity. Therefore, efforts are needed to identify etiologically homogeneous subgroups of subjects with ADHD for use in genetic studies. The current article reviews evidence suggesting that parsing ADHD subjects based on comorbidity with conduct and bipolar disorders may yield familial subtypes that are suitable for genetic analyses.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2000

Diagnostic efficiency of neuropsychological test scores for discriminating boys with and without attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

A growing literature has documented group differences between boys with and without attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on neuropsychological tests; however, whether or not such tests can discriminate individuals with ADHD from non-ADHD controls remains unclear. This study used conditional probability and receiver operating characteristic analyses to examine the efficiency of test-based diagnostic discriminations in a large sample of referred boys with and without ADHD. Single neuropsychological tests had limited discriminating ability at various cutoff scores. When multiple tests were used together, prediction of ADHD status improved but overall diagnostic efficiency remained limited. Diagnostic efficiency did not differ when medicated and nonmedicated index children were considered separately. Results suggest that children with ADHD show variable deficits on neuropsychological tests of attention and executive functions. Impairments on multiple neuropsychological tests are predictive of ADHD, but normal scores do not rule out the diagnosis. The prognostic implications of variable neuropsychological deficits in children with ADHD require further investigation.

Adolescent↗